Turning down the agency’s plea for custodial interrogation, the Supreme Court on 27 November allowed the CBI to grill former Union telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran for a period of six days for misusing phone lines during his tenure, starting from 30 November.

Justice TS Thakur directed Maran to appear before the concerned investigating officer for six days from 30 November and allowed the CBI to grill him from 11am to 5pm.

Stating that Maran will have to cooperate in the ongoing investigation, the court also said that the investigating agency would supply him with a set of questions to answer. The bench said that custodial interrogation as sought by the CBI was not required in this case and directed the former minister to cooperate fully with the CBI in the ongoing probe.

It also directed Maran to reply to all queries raised by the investigating agency about his role. Maran is accused of giving 700 high speed phone lines free of cost to Sun TV, run by his family during 2007-10 when he was the telecom minister.

The CBI alleged that the scam has caused losses of Rs 1.78 crore to Department of Telecommunications (DoT). Alleging that Maran was not cooperating with sleuths in the probe and sought his custodial interrogation.